On April 9, 2019, Department of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue defended the safety and science of Roundup® products during a U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations hearing. Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) also emphasized the importance of Roundup® products, which been a critical tool in agriculture.
Agri-Pulse | By Philip Brasher
“I’m hoping the appeals court will see through this. It would be literally devastating to our productivity capacity worldwide” if glyphosate could no longer be used by farmers, Perdue said.
Northern California Record | By Rich Peters
A judge presiding over the latest trial involving Monsanto’s Roundup has denied plaintiffs’ attempt at stifling the company’s messaging over the herbicide’s safety.
Capital Press | By Ben Scholz
The reality is that glyphosate, the active ingredient in many herbicide brands, including Roundup herbicide, is one of the most effective tools to combat weeds prior to planting or after wheat is harvested.
The Wall Street Journal | By Arthur W. Lambert
For glyphosate, the scientific evidence is decidedly mixed. A direct link to cancer is still debatable, but even if one accepts the high end of the reported risks the effects are, at best, modest.
The Wall Street Journal | By The Editorial Board
After the WHO agency’s determination, the Environmental Protection Agency convened its own panel to review glyphosate. The scientists conducted a “comprehensive systematic review of studies submitted to the agency and available in the open literature,” the EPA’s director of the Office of Pesticide Programs, Richard Keigwin, wrote last year. They concluded “glyphosate is not likely to be carcinogenic in humans.”
Legal NewsLine | By Daniel Fisher
Plaintiff-lawyer lobbying over glyphosate continues. An unusual news release by Health Canada in January reveals how much pressure one plaintiff lawyer, Brent Wisner, has brought against the Canadian agency responsible for evaluating the safety of drugs and pesticides.
Bloomberg | By Lydia Mulvany
While the world’s No. 1 weedkiller has been losing in court of late, it’s still the big winner in the agricultural world. No matter what happens with the 11,000-plus lawsuits plaintiffs have filed alleging the chemical in Roundup caused them cancer, farmers around the world are still going to keep using it, said Christopher Perrella, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.
Wall Street Journal | By Jacob Bunge
Farmers are standing by Bayer AG’s BAYRY -2.56% Roundup herbicide despite rulings from two juries that the world’s most widely used weedkiller caused cancer in plaintiffs. The chemical, used on the vast majority of corn, soybean and cotton acres planted in the U.S., remains prized by farmers for its low cost and effectiveness.
Lifehacker | By Beth Skwarecki
This week a jury found that a man’s use of Roundup on weeds in his yard was a “substantial factor” in causing the cancer that he developed years later. But court cases are not scientific studies, and scientists are still divided on whether glyphosate should really be considered a carcinogen.
Bayer today provided an update on its five-point plan to address future Roundup™ litigation risk after its May 27th decision to withdraw from the national class process. The company is now in more control of important aspects of the risk mitigation process and has sketched out two basic scenarios going forward to provide a path to closure of this litigation. The first scenario is based on obtaining a favorable decision by the United States Supreme Court on a cross-cutting issue like federal preemption which would effectively and largely end the U.S. Roundup™ litigation. The second scenario assumes that the Supreme Court either declines to hear the Hardeman case or issues a ruling in favor of plaintiff – in that case the company would activate its own claims administration program.
Read about the five-point plan here.